Jigsaw
by Askeleet
Summary: When Detective Jane Rizzoli makes a critical error on an online dating profile, she is drawn to a medical examiner who enters her life in more ways than one. Jane has to go on a journey of realisation for her to accept this new course in her life and battle back demons from her past to stop them from re-occurring.
1. Opening Up

Jane Rizzoli was on the hunt. Her usual companion, a now lukewarm bottle of Olympia beer, occupied her hand which she would like to have held by a man. Her laptop, a white Sony Vaio, resting on her legs, also seemed to be substituting for the places she would like someone to inhabit. She needed to get comfortable with what she was about to do.

As for Jane's particular hunting ground, she had selected one on the basis of it being quite a reputable one. Jane was inexperienced in this field, and she only had the word of others to go on. Still, she felt a slight tinge of apprehension; she was opening herself up, vulnerable to just about anyone on here, and she wasn't too keen on that sense of availability. Still, she swallowed her fears, and a considerable fraction of her pride, and breached the unknown territory;

She navigated onto eHarmony and clicked on the 'sign up' button.

Initially, Jane found that her fears were unfounded, the website wasn't as intimidating as it seemed. She had updated her profile picture to one that Det. Frost, one of her colleagues at the Boston Police Department, had taken at a work event. He had tried to catch her off guard, but she'd thrown the camera a rare smile (undoubtedly, due to the eager refills of wine from the waiting staff) and he had caught her in a somewhat graceful freeze-frame. Satisfied with the way that her profile represented her, she was then bombarded with something much more terrifying; the match-maker test.

The test left Jane conflicted more than once; does she present a more desirable image of herself, or does she stay completely honest. Grudgingly, she decided on the latter option. She stumbled on certain questions, trying not to look as if she would not be a loveable prospect. For example;

"How romantic are you?"

a) I love lots of romance, it is a necessity for me to feel loved

b) I am romantic, but do not require it

c) I am occasionally romantic

d) I don't consider myself a romantic person

Jane had instantly ruled out option 'd'. Despite a personality that portrayed toughness and professionalism, she was a sucker for romance. What had struck her was a realisation of her total lack of romance towards her ex-boyfriend, Casey. If she was honest, nothing had motivated her to go out of her way to be especially romantic, but that didn't prevent her from feeling the remorse of thinking that she could have done more. Jane tweaked the truth a little bit, and settled for option 'c', resolving that her next relationship must witness a rebirth of her own sense of romance. Jane's attention leaped to another question on the website;

"How important is it to you that your partner be accepted by your family and friends?"

a) Very important, I couldn't date someone without their approval

b) Important, I trust my family & friends but sometimes they are wrong

c) Slightly important, if they had a strong objection I might consider it

d) Important at all, their opinions would not influence me

Jane's thoughts quickly jumped to her mother, Angela Rizzoli, who worked in the café of the Boston Police Department. She was a welcoming woman, yet fiercely protective of her daughter's welfare, and Jane wondered how these two characteristics were to balance out if she were to introduce a man to her mother. Her concerns lay primarily with her two brothers; Frankie and Tommy. They lay at opposite ends of the spectrum. Frankie would be overly suspicious of any man that Jane brought home and may intimidate him, whereas Tommy would be overly friendly, and almost too friendly. He was naïve, and sometimes his sincerity could be mis-interpreted as sarcasm. Jane realised, though they may sometimes act in a way different to how she would like, her family's opinion was important to her therefore she put a tick by 'b'.

Jane continued on with the questions, some much more difficult than the others in Jane's effort to provide an accurate depiction of herself, not easy when questions about how often she liked to dress up were raised. The last question on the test was no easier for her to answer objectively;

"How much ongoing stress do you have in your life?"

a) I have almost no stress in my life.

b) I have a small amount of ongoing stress.

c) I have a fairly high level of constant stress.

d) I have a very stressful life.

Jane couldn't lie here. Working as a homicide detective at Boston Police Department was a job that absorbed her; she felt a personal draw to some of her cases due to her want for justice. This absorption meant that she was very involved in the hunt for truth, making it a rather stressful toil when it wouldn't reveal itself quickly, and no one would have called Jane a patient woman. She didn't want to present herself too badly however, so she decided that it could be toned down to the still rather high levels of 'c'.

Once the test had finished and Jane had answered all the questions as honestly as she could, she shut her laptop and lay back, thinking about what kind of person that her combination of answers may attract. She thought that it was crazy that a long sequence of four letters could claim to find her a soul-mate, yet she pushed this scepticism to the back of her mind so she could draw enjoyment from her hopeful thoughts. Line-ups of men that Jane considered attractive flew through her mind, and this reverie was only interrupted by her dog, Joe Friday, a small Cairn Terrier, excitedly barking at her; obviously she wanted Jane to take her for a walk. Jane, however, was exhausted. She had been sleepy before the ordeal of the test and going outside was the last thing that she wished to do. Sometimes she wished she had a vastly less energetic pet, but one look in Joe Friday's cute black eyes, and this feeling evaporated.

Jane decided that she would go to sleep here. Throughout the night, she'd let the mystery algorithms of the dating website match her to whoever they thought would be suitable for her. As she went to retreat into her bedroom, she addressed Joe Friday's dismayed whimpers with promises that she'd take her out in the morning as if the dog would understand this bargain. After an evening of staring at the bright white of her laptop screen, Jane was more than happy to turn the lights of her bedroom off, and close her eyes, letting sleep carry her into the coming of the next day.


	2. Perplexed

Jane Rizzoli woke up in the morning, having slept until 10:34am. She opened the blinds that clothed her window, and shafts of light danced through the openings and on to her chest in response. Squinting in the light that attempted to invade her eyes, she looked out on the rush of suburbia in Boston. Today was a day off for Jane Rizzoli, yet, not wholly so. If there was an emergency at the police department, she would be on call in case she was needed. She was determined not to waste her day in case that she did get the dreaded call.

Still in her dressing gown, she put the kettle on and put two spoonfuls of instant coffee into a permanently stained mug, her only one. Her mother, Angela, owned a collection of colourful novelty mugs, yet Jane was a woman of simple tastes, and her plain beige mug reflected this.

A loud noise punctuated the quiet atmosphere of the tranquil morning, and it startled Jane so much that she flinched and splashed her hands with the hot coffee that she had just prepared. Jo Friday bounded hopefully into the kitchen, as she hadn't forgotten the promise that Jane had made to her the previous night. Jane placed the now moist coffee mug on to the stone-grey kitchen counter and turned to her beloved dog.

"Hey there Jo!" Jane said in a way one might speak to an excited baby. "You wanna go walkies? You wanna go walkies? Yeah?! Alright, just let me drink my coffee, good girl!" The way Jo looked at Jane sometimes made her feel as if she understood every word that she said. Jane often had trouble remembering that dogs don't understand things like "don't eat the pot roast!" or "the bath is off limits when I am inside of it!", not even Jo Friday.

Jane quickly drunk the hot coffee, placed her plain mug on top of a pile of dirty dishes, spanning the meals of the past three days, that she really did intend to wash. After the eHarmony ordeal last night, Jane really could use a walk outside so she grabbed Jo Friday's scarlet dog lead and strapped it to her. She needed time to think about what the cat dragged in; the men that the mastermind that was eHarmony had thought suitable to match her with.

Five minutes into Jo Friday's walk, the curiosity had gotten to the better side of Jane's self control, and the downloading application on her iPhone was evidence of this; the eHarmony smart-phone application. It was taking a long time install onto Jane's phone, and the thought of what could be awaiting her was gnawing away at Jane's mind.

Jane and Jo reached a small park that was situated near to where they both lived, and Jane thought it would be safe to let Jo from her leash so she could run around freely and chase the unsuspecting pigeons. Jane, however, was not chasing the pigeons; she was sat on the bench, watching the download bar inching it's way slowly towards completion. There was a very small space left, but the time seemed to stretch out. The phone made a ring of notification when the download completed and it caught Jane off guard and she gasped quite audibly, attracting the attention of a young couple walking past her. Jane gave them a smile that said 'everything's fine' and they walked by. When they were suitably distant, she excitedly extracted her phone from her pocket and logged into eHarmony.

When she got into the website, she saw that eHarmony had matched her with over twenty people! Jane sighed, and thought "surely, not all of these people want to talk to me?" What struck Jane more was the bubble by the envelope button, which symbolised messages; it contained a little number '1'. A twinge of anticipation shot through Jane, and without her realising, her thumb had darted to click on the message icon without receiving express permission from her mind.

Jane looked at her phone and expressed confusion at what she saw. The icon of the person that had messaged her had popped up, with a little snippet of the message which read "Hello there Jane Rizzoli. I have read what you have...", it stopped mid-sentence, much to Jane's annoyance.

It was the icon that had aroused Jane's shock; it was a picture of a woman, quite a feminine looking one at that. It was only a small icon that couldn't be enlarged, so Jane couldn't get a good look at her. Jane then scanned for a name; "Maura Isles", definitely a woman. Jane had no idea what to think. She was straight, so why was a woman messaging her? Her curiosity heightened and she clicked on the message to see it fully, but a blue bar appeared at the top of her phone screen announcing "no internet connection" and Jane cursed out loud for being denied access to her own correspondence. She would have to wait until she was back at home.

Jane stood up, and put Jo Friday back on her leash. Jo was still in the mood to play games and terrorise the avian wildlife, but Jane was walking at a swift pace, her feet driven by her whirring mind. She was determined to get back to her house quickly in order to find out what this 'Maura Isles' had to say.

Ten minutes later, Jane was sitting on her red fabric sofa with her laptop starting up on her lap, it couldn't load quickly enough for her. The well of Jane's patience suffered from drought conditions at the very best of times, and now when she was so curious it was absolutely bone dry. Jane logged into her laptop after what seemed like ten minutes of waiting and she quickly opened up Google Chrome and typed eHarmony into the search bar; her rapid typing sounding almost machine-gun like. The login page materialised before her, and she typed her details in so quickly that she misspelled her password. Cursing, she typed it out again at a slower pace.

The little 'one' bubble still lingered by the envelope symbol. Jane hovered the mouse over the envelope and clicked, bring up a messages tab, containing her only conversation; with Maura Isles. She clicked on the conversation and it turned into a page that looked almost like a chat-room. Maura's full message appeared in the space for messages, and Jane Rizzoli read through it;

"Hello there, Jane Rizzoli. I have read what you have written on your profile page, and I must admit that you do seem like a fascinating woman. As a homicide detective, you must have worked on some absolutely scintillating cases. You know, I actually read an enlightening piece of research based on the accuracy of the intuition of homicide detectives undertaken by a psychologist called Michelle Wright. If you are interested, I could always copy the URL of the article (it has been published online) and paste it into this message so you can read it? Actually, the research was undertaken without the comparison of a control group, so maybe it's not the greatest piece of psychological research to send to you! Perhaps we could discuss the strengths and limitations of this particular piece of research over coffee? Message me back to say whether you're interested or not!"

The message puzzled Jane deeply. Not only because it was sent by a woman, but because she thought that her discussion of psychological research was slightly odd when messaging someone for the first time on a dating website. Jane also had no clue what a 'control group' was and why Maura was so concerned about the absence of it. Driven by further curiosity, Jane clicked on Maura's picture and she was redirected to her profile which, unfortunately, was private. There was, however, an enlarged version of Maura's picture. Jane grudgingly admitted to herself that Maura was in fact a very attractive woman; she had sandy coloured wavy hair that flowed just past her shoulders. She was smiling, somewhat shyly, at the camera whilst holding a glass of red wine. She appeared to be at a formal occasion, with someone else behind the camera.

Jane then decided that she would look at the other people who she had been 'matched' with. To her shock, every single one of them was a woman. She filtered down the page and saw entirely female faces smiling back at her. Jane sat back on her sofa, mystified about how this could have happened, and why the dating website had found it appropriate to pair her with people that she was not attracted to. She decided to go back to Maura's message and type out a response, hoping that it may gleam some light on the situation;

"Hey Miss Isles. I don't wanna sound rude or anything but I think you may have got the wrong impression here. I mean, don't get me wrong now, there's nothing wrong with two women being together, but it's just not for me! What made you think that I swing that way?"

Jane read the reply back over in her head, hoping it didn't sound too rude. She was irritated at the website for doing this to her, not Maura Isles, who had taken the time to write to her. Even so, she was concerned that her message may sound a little bit too brusque. Despite this, Jane was too confused to look so meticulously into her words and sent the message. Already growing weary of eHarmony, she closed the lid of her laptop, put the kettle on and waited to prepare another mug of instant coffee.


	3. Laying The Foundations

Maura arrived back at her home at half past seven in the evening. It was a mild September evening and the sky had burst into a blast of pink tinged with orange, darkening as time progressed into the night. Maura's home was a large town house in Boston. She could afford to live comfortably due to the fact that she had been adopted by wealthy, if not slightly distant, parents as a child after her birth parents, still unknown to her, had given her up for adoption. Maura presumed they had been too young to handle a child, and had wanted her to be raised by a couple who were more able.

She had just returned from a job interview. Aside from her suggesting that the interviewing panel should substitute their heavily sugared and creamed coffees for a delicious and naturally stimulating mug of jasmine flavoured green tea, she thought it had gone smoothly, and was expecting to hear back from them in two days whilst they reviewed her suitability for the position. Even so, interviews made Maura feel anxious; she did not like being placed in unpredictable scenarios, and the uncertainty of the direction of conversation in an interview put Maura on edge. Maura took the bottle of 2006 Freeman Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir that she had left open on her kitchen counter in the morning in order to decant; she knew that she would need it when she arrived back at home. She poured herself a liberal glass of the Venetian red coloured liquid and slumped down on to her grey fabric sofa, grabbing one of the large green pillows and placing it on to her lap. She put the laptop on top of the pillow, opening it up before checking her e-mails. Right at the top of the page, she saw something that she had previously put at the back of her mind for the day, but the reminder of it made her heart skip in anxiety;

'eHarmony: [1] new message from Jane Rizzoli'

Maura had been using the eHarmony dating website for a month now, and she had been yet to find anyone that she felt like she could connect to. That was until she had stumbled upon the profile of Jane Rizzoli. What has struck Maura about Jane's profile picture was that she was a woman who looked like she had so much more going on below the surface, much more than what the exterior portrayed. Maura couldn't quite explain where she had got this impression from, but that was this kind of woman that her picture depicted, and consequently, it inspired Maura's curiosity. She had sent Jane a message late in the hours of last night, after staying up late, engrossed in a medical journal. Maura was eager to know whether Jane was interested in discussing the psychological revelations of Michelle Wright over a cup of expertly brewed, non-instant coffee. Instead, the response she got was a surprise;

"Hey Miss Isles. I don't wanna sound rude or anything but I think you may have got the wrong impression here. I mean, don't get me wrong now, there's nothing wrong with two women being together, but it's just not for me! What made you think that I swing that way?"

The reasons as to why the final sentence of Jane's message confused Maura were twofold. Firstly, for a woman who insisted she was straight, she definitely seemed interested in keeping the discussion with Maura going. Secondly, when Maura had been perusing her profile, it had stated that she was interested in finding a woman for a relationship. Her anxiety racing, Maura checked Jane's profile in the fear that she had made a dreadful mistake, but it clearly and concretely stated that Jane was looking for a woman. Maura saw that Jane was not only online, but had been for the past eight hours. She decided that she would send her a message, hoping to clear the confusion;

"Good evening Jane. Please, I would prefer that you referred to me as Maura. I take it that you unaware that your profile states that you are interested in finding a woman to date? Upon reading your message to me, I thought I had been mistaken, but be assured that I checked back on to your profile to confirm what I had previously read" Maura typed into the chat box.

After proof reading it to make sure she approved of the tone conveyed and the state of grammatical correctness, she sent it into cyber-space, to be read by Jane Rizzoli, and indeed, it seemed that she was a quick reader as barely thirty seconds had elapsed before Maura was informed that Jane was typing a message to her. It seemed to take Jane much longer to type out than it did to have read and received the message. Three minutes passed before Maura was greeted with what Jane had to say;

"What?! Are you serious? How do I change it back?" Maura could not help but be amused by the panic that Jane seemed to be exhibiting. She did not know how to help Jane, for she had always been sure of the direction that her desires took her.

"I apologise, but I do not know how you can change that setting" Maura sent to Jane, unhelpfully, but sincerely at the very least.

"Shit, I'm gonna have to sign up again and make another profile. I spent so long on that God-damn personality test. There's no way I'm going through that again!" Maura felt a response rise up in her mind, but she wasn't sure that it would be appreciated on the other side of the chat room. Even so, she felt her fingers on the keyboard and before she knew it, she was reading her response on the computer screen;

"Well, you can always stay here and talk to me" Maura said, trying not to hope too much. Jane seemed like a fascinating woman that she would love to converse with more, however, she also seemed rather stubborn.

"Uh... Maura, this is a dating website, why would I do that?" Although Jane's exterior words were ones of resistance, Maura sensed that words that were going through her head represented a completely different reality. She read a sense of politeness in Jane's messages, that wasn't entirely necessary on the internet. Maura knew, from prior experience, that if someone wasn't interested on the internet, they could cut you off as quickly as snuffing a candle, yet Jane was making an effort to be polite to her, even though she could have left Maura without typing another word to her easily. This analysis motivated Maura into persistence;

"You're clearly an interesting woman, and I'd like to talk. Purely for conversational purposes". Maura knew that this wasn't foolproof, and there was every chance that Jane would refuse and she would have to let her go, however, the next response that she received filled her with satisfaction;

"OK, what did you want to talk about?" was the message that Maura received back from Jane. With a victorious smile, Maura stood up and strolled into the kitchen in order to put her wine glass next to the kitchen sink. She had obtained Jane Rizzoli as her conversational partner; a foundation that she hoped to build a house on.


	4. The Distraction

"OK, what did you want to talk about?"

Jane had posed that question to Maura over the internet chat-room. From the response that she received, she knew never to pose such an open ended question to Maura Isles ever again. She looked at her laptop screen incredulously;

"Actually, I'm glad you asked! I watched a very stimulating documentary centred on the ecology of carrion decomposition, last night. Maybe you also watched it. I mean, carrion decomposition is slightly off-track of my career field, but not totally unrelated, so I thought I'd give it a look in". Jane could safely say that she did not fully understand this woman. She decided to try and solicit some form of familiar conversation from this bizarre response.

"Right. And, what career field would that be?" Jane asked, fully expecting some form of outlandish occupation that she would have never heard of.

"I actually returned home from a job interview a little over an hour ago" Maura informed her vaguely. Ever-curious to find out what this 'enigmatic-would-be-an-understatement' woman did for a living, she decided to press and see what the job interview was for;

"What was the interview for?" Jane asked inquisitively.

"It was for the position of Medical Examiner, so I would be based in the morgue of the Boston Police Department. I noticed that you're a detective, so where exactly in Boston would you be based?" Jane was filled with shock at Maura's revelation. The job title wasn't too surprising, since Maura came across as having an enthusiastic and scientifically oriented mind, however, Jane also worked at the Boston Police Department, meaning that Jane and Maura would be working in the same building, given Maura got the job! Jane didn't know how to feel about this.

"What a co-incidence, I work on the homicide department of the Boston Police Department" Jane told Maura, taking care to remove any traces of sarcasm from what she said.

"Wow, no kidding?! Well, it looks like I've already made a friend!" Jane was about to argue and tell her that their conversation did not constitute a friendship, but upon reflection, she saw no point in dashing Maura's happiness. She also thought that having another friend couldn't really go amiss, seeing as she did not make them all too easily.

"Yeah, sure, of course!" Jane said, not really knowing how to respond to that.

"Actually, Jane, ever since I applied for the position as Medical Examiner, there's been something bugging me that I just cannot get off of my mind! Could I possibly ask you something?"

"Go ahead" Jane typed to her, wondering how serious Maura's doubts were.

"Tell me, in the Police Department café, do they serve coffee made from the ground coffee beans or will I be required to bring in my own coffee machine and make it myself?" Jane was starting to wonder whether Maura was serious now, due to the bizarre things that she seemed to be coming out with. Whether it was a legitimate fear of Maura's or not, she gave her a response;

"Don't worry, the coffee isn't instant. My mom works in the café!" Jane informed Maura.

"Oh really? Well, you'll have to introduce me to her!"

"Don't you think it's a bit early on for that?"

"Now, early on in what exactly?" Jane felt like she had been lead into a trap here, just the selection of her words had landed her into the perilous situation where Maura was asking her to label the relationship between the two of them! Jane initially had thought there would be zero existence of any relationship whatsoever, and she didn't feel that 'talking online for less than two hours' constituted one either.

"Acquainting ourselves" Jane responded with, and immediately after sending it the suggestive connotations had sunk in. It also seemed that Maura hadn't failed to pick up on it either.

"Well, in that case, let us continue to acquaint" she had sent to Jane with a somewhat redolent overtone.

Jane was about to type out a response to Maura's message, but her phone rang before she had the chance. Her mobile phone was on the kitchen counter and she was on the sofa, and she had to swiftly move over to the kitchen counter to silence the high pitch whine of the phone's ringer. She glanced at the caller ID before answering and saw that the call was coming from her partner, Detective Frost, who worked with her on homicide at the Boston Police Department.

"Rizzoli?" She said by way of greeting and as a question as to what warranted the call.

"Jane, there's been a body found, you'll need to get here as soon as possible" Frost informed her, his voice tinted with the slightest hallmarks of revulsion. He felt uneasy around the dead and the decaying, therefore this aspect of the job of homicide he went about with a palatable amount of disgust.

"Yeah? Well, it'd be good of you to tell me where about's it's been found, body dumps aren't scavenger hunts. Well, not most of the time, anyway" Jane replied, impatient for Frost to tell her where there had been a body found.

"Just get to Dorchester Shores as soon, as possible okay?"

"Yeah, sure, thanks Frost" Jane told him before putting the phone down. This meant that she would have to cut short her conversation with Maura. She quickly typed out a response;

"Sorry Maura but I just got a call from my partner and I have to go work on a case. I think it's urgent. Talk to you later". The latter part of that sentence Jane had written out of instinct, though she thought that she'd be happier to stay home and talk to Maura than go out on a cold September evening to pick up a dead body.

"Ooh, how exciting! Yes, we shall speak sometime else, maybe I'll see you at work?" Maura replied back to Jane. Jane had intended on leaving before Maura had a chance to send her response through, but she kept finding something to do until Maura's response had popped up on the computer. Resisting her urge to type anything else, she grabbed her car keys, said goodbye to Jo Friday after making sure her food and water bowls were full, and ran out to her car.


	5. Where Lines Overlap

Maura wasn't a woman who felt comfortable with being thrown into uncharted waters, so she had decided that she would pay a visit to the coffee shop in the Boston Police Department. It hadn't yet been confirmed that she was getting the job, however, in case she was needed quickly she had decided to familiarise herself with the headquarters of the police in Boston.

It was 3:12pm in the afternoon, therefore the coffee shop wasn't bustling with business; a move that Maura had calculated. Sitting on her own in a busy place was intimidating for her, and she preferred to visit when there weren't a multitude of people waiting for a not-so-quick fix of amateurishly produced coffee.

She walked up to the counter and instantly felt welcome when the woman manning the shop gave her a smile. She was a very good looking woman for her age with dark blonde hair that fell just past her shoulders. Maura estimated that she was in her mid-fifties, however she wasn't certain on this.

"Hi there! What can I get for you?" the woman warmly said to Maura, still smiling gently at her.

"Good afternoon! May I ask whether you serve any green teas?" Maura asked, returning the smile to the woman, who had made her feel a sense of comfort that was unusual for first encounters.

"Y'know what? I've been nagging Stanley, oh, who's the manager of this coffee shop. Uh, where was I? Oh yes! I've been nagging the manager of this joint for us to start selling some green tea. I've told him, it's much better for the cops than the coffee that we serve, but apparently there's no market for it! Cops, eh? Only interested in coffee and a donut!"

"That's a shame. Green tea has so many benefits, ranging from lowering cholesterol to preventing depression! I think the police force really could use the tranquillising effect that it provides with it's consumption. I've read in research that the stress level of police officers is rather high."

"Ah, tell me about it. My daughter's in the force, she works here actually, and you can tell sometimes that she's under a lot of stress. We may not have green tea, but we do have English Breakfast if you're interested?"

"Hmmm. Do you mind if I ask whether the coffee you serve is instant or not?"

"It's filter coffee."

"And, do I spy coffee syrup in those bottles on the shelf behind you?"

"You do indeed! We have caramel, cinnamon, butter rum and hazelnut. Does this mean that I may interest you in some?"

"Sure! I think I'll take a chance on the butter rum! Thanks!"

"Of course you can, coming right up!" The woman busied herself with preparing Maura's coffee. As she poured the black liquid into a pristine white mug, she began to converse once more with Maura; "So, if you don't mind me asking, what brings you to the Boston Police Department today?" Angela enquired. Usually, Maura would find such questioning unwelcome, but Angela had somehow put her at ease, so she had no qualms around answering her question.

"I actually came for a job interview here the other day, going for the position of medical examiner. The position hasn't been officially given to me yet, but I thought that it would be good to familiarise myself with the setting, just in case there's an emergency and I have to be called in on short notice" Maura informed Angela, just as she was handed her coffee with another smile that was almost maternal in its kindness.

"Well, good luck to you! Personally, I don't know how you can do it! I've seen enough medical dramas to know that it's not a career for me! I get queasy enough having to throw out the bread that's passed the expiration date, let alone having to do an autopsy! I'd be a great detective though! I read so many crime novels, and I always know who did it! I sometimes feel like I missed my calling in life!"

"I guess I've just gotten used to carrying out an autopsy. When you're in the profession, you stop thinking about what it is, as in you don't really consider the fact that you're cutting up a dead body" Maura noticed the reluctant grimace forming on the woman's face "Apologies, I won't be too graphic with my language. I guess, even though I have to detach myself from the victim, I like being able to fight for their justice. I call it speaking for the dead."

"You're a good woman. Not just anyone would be willing to do a job like yours in order to help the course of justice."

"Well, thank you. But, I haven't got the job yet!" To this, the woman who was serving Maura leaned in closer to her.

"Take it from me, the Police Department would be mad not to hire you" she said in a hushed tone, as if the security of her job depended on it. "What's your name anyway?"

"I'm Maura."

"Maura. That's pretty. You don't get an awful lot of Maura's around, but I bet you also don't meet a lot of people like you every day either! I'm Angela, by the way!"

"Oh, I don't know about that!" Maura responded with a small smile which followed by an elegant sip of her steaming cup of butter rum flavoured coffee. Angela chuckled lightly at her response. The coffee shop wasn't busy, and only attracted very occasional custom at this time of the day, so Maura and Angela continued their conversation with each other. They talked about Maura's background and her career before coming here, and also her adopted parents and the lack of knowledge of her biological parents. Angela also discussed her family, without naming anyone. It turned out that both her daughter and her son worked at the Boston Police Department. Although her other son did not work here, he was a regular visitor nonetheless, much to the rest of the family's chagrin.

After about three quarters of an hour of Maura and Angela talking, they were interrupted by a voice unfamiliar to Maura, coming from behind them.

"Maura?"


	6. Lady in Red, Lady in Black

Jane Rizzoli had been on her feet all day. The body that had been discovered yesterday evening at Dorchester Shores still remained unidentified; a difficult John Doe. They were looking for leads and were still waiting on the new medical examiner to be brought in. The Boston Police Department had dropped the ball slightly in their organisational skills; the old medical examiner had left yesterday, yet they hadn't yet selected a new one, something that had sparked confusion throughout the building. Jane represented the feelings of the entirety of the frustrated homicide department when she hoped that the new medical examiner will come to work promptly, however it also prompted a slight feeling of nervous anticipation that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She intended to visit her mother in the coffee shop in order to vent her stress.

She walked into the coffee shop and the scene she was presented with upon her entrance made her stop in her tracks. Her mother, Angela Rizzoli, was chatting animately with a customer at the counter. Jane sized up the woman that her mother was chatting with and she was met with a startling realisation. The woman who was wearing a scarlet coat paired with black heels that looked expensive had a head of honey coloured hair that set Jane's mind racing and this realisation controlled her vocal chords, as the surprise manifested into a exclamation;

"Maura?" Jane questioned. The honey haired woman turned around, and the surprised face that she was presented with was one of familiarity for her. She had never seen it in real life, but it was still one that was ingrained in her mind. The surprise that registered on the woman's face slowly turned into a unexpected beam, and Jane was taken in by the striking smile.

"Jane? Jane Rizzoli?" Maura asked, keeping the smile on her face. Even though what she said was presented as a question, she was sure in her mind that the name she had recalled was correct. The chestnut, wavy locks that streamed down from her face were unmistakeable, and her dark brown eyes weren't something that Maura was likely to forget quickly.

"Maura, you know my daughter?" Angela asked, her smile substituted with an expression of shock, yet the aura of comfort still stood strong.

"Jane's your daughter?!" Maura questioned, clearly shocked at the co-incidence.

"Yep, Jane Rizzoli, daughter of Angela Rizzoli, who you've been speaking to for the past hour!" Angela informed her, as if she was supposed to have known this information.

"Well, Jane and I, we... I suppose you could say..." Maura stammered on her words as she tried to quickly formulate in her mind what she should say to Angela about where Jane recognised her from, however, there was a whirlwind in her mind, which was rendering her powers of sentence structure defunct. Angela, realising that she wasn't going to get an answer out of Maura, then looked expectantly at Jane with an arched eyebrow.

"Yeah, what she said." Jane told Angela, unhelpfully. Angela frowned and shrugged her shoulders.

"What's going on here Jane? What're you not telling me?" Angela interrogated Jane, clearly confused at the behaviour of the pair of women.

"Look, Ma, it's complicated, okay?" Jane retorted.

"Jane!"

"Look, would you two prefer it if I gave you some time to yourselves?" Maura asked, them, feeling like she had gotten in the way of a mother and daughter.

"No, Maura, of course you don't have to go!" Angela said sincerely, touching her supportively on the forearm. The touch was tender enough to be kind, yet Maura didn't feel like it was an intrusion.

"Look, Maura, maybe you could give us a moment..." Jane suggested, nervously. She didn't want Maura to go, but she needed to talk to her mother about the situation, and she knew that Maura's presence would make the challenge far more difficult.

"Jane Clementine Rizzoli!" Angela exclaimed, raising her voice slightly, but not loud enough to catch the attention of the other customers in the coffee shop.

"Your middle name is Clementine?" Maura asked Jane, her expression one of mild surprise.

"What's wrong with Clementine? It's pretty!" Angela defended, looking slightly offended.

"Nothing! I was just surprised seeing as it's not exactly a common name!"

"Well, I decided that I would name her after..." Angela started, however, she was interrupted.

"Could you two possibly have this conversation sometime else, please?" Jane requested of them. Maura sensed that this would likely be her social cue to depart from the situation.

"Yeah, sure. I'm just gonna head back home now; my tortoise needs to be fed his usual variety of leafy greens! See you, Angela, Jane!" Maura gave them both a small smile before turning on her heel and heading for the doors out of the police department. After she had finished waving to Maura, Angela turned to Jane and exhaled a sigh.

"Now are you gonna tell me what that was all about?" Angela quizzed Jane.

"Can I have some coffee first?" Jane whined.

"You can have some coffee after you have explained to me how you know that lovely woman and why you sent her away!"

"Fine. Well, Ma, I met her on an online dating website" Jane told Angela without making eye contact.

"Oh, Jane, why didn't you just tell me?" Angela asked her, clearly relieved with another comforting smile in her face.

"Not like that! I just... Look, I just made a mistake. I was tired when I filled out the forms, and I'd had a couple of beers. When I read the question that asked me who I'm interested in, I must have thought it was asking me whether I'm male or female, so I selected 'woman'"

"So, you and Maura? You're not...?"

"No, we're not."

"Damn it Jane!" Angela suddenly sounded angry, which caught Jane off guard.

"What?!"

"That was a damned fine woman who just walked out of this coffee shop! To use her proper title, Dr. Maura Isles and I had been talking for the past hour! She told me about her past girlfriends, her adoptive parents and how she doesn't even know who her biological ones are. She's an interesting woman, Jane, and you just let her walk out of here!"

"But, Ma, I'm not gay!"

"Well, you better have a long hard think about that. When you came in here, I saw the look on your face when you saw me and Maura talking! Do you think I'm a fool, Janie? This is a coffee house, for Christ's sake! There's love all around! Do you think I don't know how to pick up on it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about; you're talking crazy!"

"Tell yourself that all you want, but it's not gonna make you any happier! I just hope that Maura gets the job here!"

"She will." Jane said, without really realising that she had said it.

"How would you know?" Angela questioned her, looking confused at Jane's apparent certainty. Jane looked surprised at herself and what she had just said.

"I don't know, I, uh, I don't know why I said that..." Angela looked amused at this and chuckled. She then turned the coffee machine back on.

"Alright Janie, what do you want?" Angela offered Jane, her warm and maternal overtones seeping back into her voice.

"Coffee. Oh, and can I have some of that butter rum syrup? I've been meaning to try that for ages now." Jane asked. Angela then giggled slightly, as if laughing at an inside joke, and turned around to prepare Jane's coffee.


End file.
